24 Feb 2025
Meet Alice, a specialist in school design at CPMG. Alice is a skilled architect with a passion for designing innovative, functional and inclusive learning environments. With extensive experience in education projects, she is dedicated to creating schools that balance creativity, safety and sustainability - ensuring every student has a space to learn, grow and thrive.
Exploring the balance between creativity, functionality, and inclusivity in educational spaces.
To start, can you tell us about your journey into architecture? What initially inspired you to pursue this career?
The built environment has intrigued me from an early age, particularly during family holidays when visiting different towns and cities around the world. Before I fully understood the role of an architect, I saw it almost like set design - the idea of creating the perfect backdrop for everyday life fascinated me.
At what point did you realise that education design was your passion? Was there a particular project, experience, or mentor that shaped this focus?
I fell into education design early in my career and have worked across various sectors since. Somehow, I always find myself drawn back to the education team.
I’ve been involved in some very interesting, concept-driven schemes, but the majority are highly constrained, standardised, and process-driven buildings. As an architect, this can sometimes feel restrictive. In those moments, I remind myself that our goal is quite literally to create the perfect backdrop for children to learn and grow - and that’s a powerful motivation.
What were some of the biggest lessons you learned early in your career about designing learning environments?
Some of the best educational architecture goes completely under the radar. There’s no grandiose design concept or feature in architectural magazines.
These buildings are designed to provide a comfortable, functional, and safe environment where students and staff can thrive.
At the end of the day, they are public sector projects. That means value for money, condensed construction programmes, and robustness are at the forefront of every scheme. They often integrate seamlessly into communities, quietly improving people’s everyday lives.
What are the core principles of designing effective learning environments?
There are many schools of thought based on different design principles and research from around the world.
At their core, successful education spaces address the basic physical and psychological needs of each student. They provide the safety and comfort necessary for students to engage with their learning and development within their classroom, school, and wider community.
In reality, these large-scale, multidisciplinary projects involve many interconnected principles. Together, they form a complex design framework to meet the Department for Education’s (DfE) criteria for an optimum educational space. How long have you got?
Schools need to balance function, safety, and inspiration. How do you navigate these competing priorities?
CPMG works within the DfE’s criteria, which standardises the approach to school design. Function and safety are key drivers of these requirements. While each school and site presents unique challenges, the majority of design criteria remain consistent across projects.
As architects, it’s about creating opportunities for something special - whether that’s a memorable sense of arrival, maximising views in or out of the building, selecting sympathetic or contrasting materials, or creating a sense of identity. The possibilities, while not endless on a public sector budget, are vast.
We work closely with schools to meet their expectations while balancing budgets with contractors.
The concept of human-centric design is central to CPMG’s approach. How does this translate into school architecture?
We conduct an intensive six-week client engagement period at the start of each project. During this time, we gather as much information as possible from the building’s future users. This allows us to tailor the standardised approach to suit the school’s curriculum and, ultimately, the pupils’ specific needs.
Inclusivity is a big focus in modern education design. What are some key design features that promote inclusivity, particularly for neurodiverse students or those with special educational needs (SEN)?
Our interiors team works very hard to ensure our designs meet accessibility and inclusivity requirements. This includes carefully considered colour schemes justified through colour theory and ensuring adequate Light Reflectance Value (LRV) differences between finishes.
Providing spaces that support individual needs - where environments can be controlled and adapted - is key to SEN provision. This includes controls for lighting, ventilation, sound, colour, and pattern.
There’s increasing awareness of the impact of the built environment on student wellbeing. How does school design contribute to mental health and learning outcomes?
Each student will have a completely unique educational experience. However, the commonality is that we all spend over 15,000 hours in educational spaces before the age of 17.
It’s easy to see why these environments have such a profound influence on a child’s development. Spaces that support great learning outcomes and leave students feeling happy and engaged are those that prioritise spatial quality, thermal comfort, ventilation, and lighting.
Q11: Sustainability is a major priority. Beyond energy efficiency, how can school buildings actively promote environmental awareness and responsibility among students?
Educating students about how their building and its systems work—and the impact on the environment—would be an excellent start.
- Where are the vegetables grown that are used in school lunches?
- What happens to the grass cuttings when the football pitch is mowed?
- What happens to milk cartons when they’re put in the recycling bin?
- Where does rainwater go when it enters the gutter?
- Why do we have solar panels on the roof?
- How many resources are needed to manufacture a pencil?
- Why do we have taps that switch themselves off?
- What do the lights mean on the CO2 monitor in each classroom?
- What happens when the heating is on and the window is open?
With this knowledge, building users can make more sustainable choices in their everyday lives.
Finally, what advice would you give to schools looking to improve their existing spaces with limited resources?
It’s difficult to give a one-size-fits-all answer, as the UK’s existing school buildings vary widely in style, size, and construction method.
The best advice I can give is to ‘take stock’ and form a clear brief. We call this the ‘Strategic Definition’ stage of a project.
Assess the opportunities and constraints of your existing space. What are your desired outcomes? Defining and prioritising these criteria is essential for success. After all, how can any project succeed without a clear problem to solve or goal to achieve?
Equally, understanding what resources are available can help set realistic goals. Recognising shortfalls allows us to explore alternative funding opportunities, phased approaches, or community involvement.
Lastly, we have a passionate and dedicated education team that would be happy to provide advice - get in touch!